Element
The four Elements used by the Greeks were Fire, Earth, Air and Water. With a fifth element "Void" representing the Aether. All interactions and actions can be broken down into qualities involving these elements and their combinations. Chinese astrology focussed on a 5 Elements approach replacing Air with Wind and Earth with Metal and Wood. Background Wikipedia states that "these ancient systems were incorrect explanations of the physical world" and "that atomic theory is a correct explanation, and that atoms can be classified into more than a hundred chemical elements such as oxygen, iron, and mercury. These elements form chemical compounds and mixtures, and under different temperatures and pressures, these substances can adopt different states of matter. The most commonly observed states of solid, liquid, gas, and plasma share many attributes with the classical elements of earth, water, air, and fire, respectively, but it is now known that these states are due to similar behavior of different types of atoms at similar energy levels, and not due to containing a certain type of atom or a certain type of infinitely divisible substance or energy." My response is that the chemical elements are highly complex structures of energy, formed in patterns that correspond to an interaction between the four elements. Just like metals tend to form from interaction between Earth and Fire. Some of these interactions take many, many cycles and iterations of the 4 basic building blocks, but the ancients didn't see the world as being a simple combination of the 4 elements, they just recognised philosophically that there is nothing that can't be fundamentally broken down to a series of interactions between these four patterns of nature. Modernised The old elements were named based on the most accessible concepts available, but these names do not have to be kept. For example "Fire" was the best word to describe the concept of dry, hot energy and "Water" was best to describe wet, cold energy. Today with modern physics, we have a deeper understanding of many concepts and can re-assign names to the elements to best fit these commonly understood concepts. States of Matter * Plasma = Fire * Liquid = Water * Gas = Air * Solid = Earth Gravity analogies Firstly, I feel that "Water" is better replaced with something conveying "Gravity", since the water signs are really best understood in terms of the flow of water rather than water itself. Water is simply an element that flows very freely under gravity, but I think the underlying flow is best understood when we think more broadly of gravity itself, rather than focussing on water. Cancer is strong gravitational pull in a single direction, like a deep emotional pull towards a person or a comet pulled towards the earth. Scorpio is a steady, contained, swirling gravity underneath a calm surface like an icy lake of swirling water or a planet with an icy surface and a sub-surface ocean. Pisces is the slow, relaxed flow back and forth of an extra-solar asteroid as it is nudged by distant stars and planets, but never pulled into their gravity completely, always going with whatever slope pulls but never becoming ensnared. Light analogies Obviously Leo has links to light, but I think in a broad sense all of the "fire signs" do. In fact, I am tempted to call them "light signs" although I think it still misses something about them. Leo is the direct, shining light of a star, completely concealing the nuclear inferno bubbling underneath with its pure, white spectrum of direct sunlight spread over an entire sphere to share its glory with the universe. It gives a blackbody curve. Aries is coherent light, like from a laser or a naturally pure source. It is monochromatic, single colour, single frequency, travelling directly from source to absorber - coherently emitted and coherently absorbed. It is high frequency and narrow field, like a pulsar emitting X-rays out in a beam across the universe to distant galaxies. It is not a blackbody curve, it is a Lorentzian peak at high frequency. Sagittarius is the end of the spectrum, the low frequency, long wavelength light that echoes and permeates throughout the universe. It knows no boundary and travels further than anything, it cannot be contained and ties the whole universe into one state. It is the cosmic microwave background and the broad low frequency hump in the spectrum. The blackbody spectrum of planets, etc. as they radiate heat. "Fire signs" as a whole can be seen as emitters, but Sagittarius is less of an emitter than the other two, it emits infra-red, like heat, while the others emit much directly and strongly. Absorber/reflector analogies In analogy to light as emitters, there are also absorbers and reflectors of this energy, which introduces the Earth and Air signs. Taurus is clearly an absorber, though it has elements of emittance and reflectance too, like a big earthy planet would. Gemini is like a monatomic gas, with two possible states. Constantly being excited by radiation and then re-radiating the energy back out as it de-excites. It is an emitter/absorber but essentially is a delayed reflector in this sense, particularly for coherent light, like Aries since Gemini has such a sharp spectrum (two lines). Aquarius, on the other hand is like a drops of water are to sunlight on a misty morning, it is a refractor. It takes in the energies of its environment in parallel (not one at a time like Gemini) and then it separates these simultaneous energies into a spectrum - the rainbow. Aquarians can turn the most mundane experiences into something transcendental through the way their perspective is formed (curved and "different" like a droplet and just as varied and erratic as mist on a windy morning). Capricorn = reflector? tries not to absorb, just transmit or reflect, like a metal or a crystal. Tries to form structure rather than amorphousness like Taurus, to keep its interactions predictable and ordered like the atoms in a diamond. Haven't fully grasped this one yet, but something down this line. Libra is not done yet, something similar to Venus with it's planet in retrograde spin, while the atmosphere spins prograde. Leaving it as a turbulent, yet balanced system of opposing forces. Much beauty in this, since the wind and earth scour each other and become smooth over time, giving something akin to a pearl in a clam over time, a smoothed planet with an erratic and unstable wind that constantly tries to rebalance, and experiences great beauty in the moments when turbulence subsides and smoothness prevails. Overall, I would say it's a strong reflector via this atmospheric turbulence and also the greenhouse effect, but this is all mostly for low-frequencies, it's probably more of an absorber of higher frequencies, which explains why Venus is so hot. Hot gases also radiate, so of course Libra is also an emitter, this is probably why Libra-like people are so frazzled, they are juggling so many things to balance, when to give, when to take and when to relax (detailed balance) Virgo in my mind right now is like dust. It is the "air" version of Earth, it is the particles in the air, the dust around the asteroid belt, the electron-positron sea in the aether, it is whenever matter (earth) exists in it's most discrete, unstructured forms and in a spread out area. Hence, the nature of Virgo is to find the order amongst the chaos, to spread as evenly as possible and make the most perfect configuration of the mess that is possible. I guess it might do this via interactions with light, whereby tiny dust particles are able to heat up so much more than a clump of matter can, and hence the heat separates them from each other out in space away from strong gravity and the weak gravity of other particles can never add up enough to cause the dust to collect. Unlike gases, which have only collective heat and hence begin to swirl and collapse, dust does not collapse and collect, it separates and reaches equilibrium, it finds stability amongst chaos. Just like the carbon dust that coats its ruling planet Mercury and acts as a layer of thermally conductive paint. Summary In essence, all forms that energy can take are an expression of what energies are released, restrained or ignored. Energy in this sense is the essence. Restrained energy must be released elsewhere, so when a Taurean mass absorbs sunlight it re-radiates that energy later as heat, which it has transmuted the higher vibration into via the vibrations of its lattice of atoms (phonons). A gaseous cloud (Libran) when heated up (phonons, heat energy, vibration) does the inverse of this, it transmutes the lower vibrations into higher vibrations (acoustic to optical), as the gas radiates. (more soon,.. want to touch on Fire and Water signs last, but don't quite have the rest formed yet) In Psychoanalysis Carl Jung developed the use of elements in Western psychoanalysis... The image to the right shows how the elements can be related to some of the functions of consciousness outlined in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test. Astrologer "Oz Haver" explains Liz Greene's theory of how they correlate as below (from the Free-Spirited Mind Facebook group): "... However it also catalogs into Dominant, Auxiliary, Tertiary and Inferior functions. If you noticed the Perception/Judging Functions are not in the chart, also part of the system. Dominant Ni (Introverted Intuition) will always be J. Dominant Ne (Extraverted Intuition) will always be P. Introverted or Extraverted either. An INTJ is NiTeFiSe: Ni (Introverted Intuition) Dominant = Fire Te (Extraverted Thinking = ) Auxiliary = Air Fi (Introverted Feeling) Tertiary = Water Se (Extraverted Sensing) Inferior = Earth Element / Sign Every combination will have N T F S- J & P are determined in conclusion and will also (almost always) match the least present elements in the chart." For example, I am an ENFP (though perhaps INFP if I didn't work so hard at being E) and this means I am dominant Ne (hence I am prospecting rather than judging, which is correct for me but rules out ENFJ's and ENTJ's so can't be foolproof...). Hmm, I guess you're meant to start with the chart. Since I have a lot of Fire, Earth and Air and my Sun and Ascendant are fire, I am considered an extraverted intuitive (EN aka Ne) since introverted intuitive would have more water than air after their fire dominant. With my moon and midheaven in Taurus, I am auxilliary Earth and with Mars and Venus in Aquarius I am tertiary Air leaving Water as my inferior. Summary: Fire dominant, Earth auxilliary, Air tertiary and Water inferior. Fire and Earth might suggest an introverted intuitive (IN or Ni) which is what I sometimes think I might be, but being Leo rising (ruled by sun) with sun in Aries (ruled by Mars) and Mars (and Venus) in Aquarius, I think the Air and Fire synergise much more easily than my Fire and Earth and I come out seeming more extraverted intuitive (EN or Ne). "Oz Haver" explains that it is much more complicated than this: "Not always, the way to calculate also involves the Houses, rulers of the houses, Feminine, Masculine, Cardinal/Fixed/Mutable etc. and the correlations within. I'd go as far to also include Retrograde and Direct planets as well. (i.e. I'm one of the most Introverted Aries Sun in 1st you will ever meet, for example, makes sense chart wise with so many retrograde planets and oppositions all over; and makes sense when translated to Cognitive functionality) i.e. when you take Mars for example can be an Aries Mars (masculine) OR a Scorpio Mars (feminine). Depends on houses, planet strength, dispositors, etc. The variants are complicated and extensive but in their totality they fit/make sense. I will add the suggested methodology later but I'm 'working'/busy right now ;-) Now to expand on what you were discussing— sometimes when you have little or no element in the chart some can overcompensate/over-express. If you have only one planet there but this planet also makes aspects to plenty of others even though it's the only one it can be more dominant than the other. I have no inner or outer planets in an Earth Sign. Yet you bet the North Node in Cancer in the 4th house, 2 houses in Capricorn, South Node in the 10th, Midheaven in Capricorn, etc. that I can come off as 'very grounded' to those who don't know me well and I apply "Earthy" methodology to a lot of my behaviors. Funnily, extraverted Sensing is my Inferior function. If you know about the theory— what happens when you go into shadow mode because of stress? You overindulge in your inferior function" Category:Zodiac Category:Astrology Category:Elements